Tips on using and contributing to Wikipedia

This is Wikipedia's tip library. Here you can digest how to use Wikipedia in bite-sized morsels. The tips listed below were created for the Tip of the day project, but are listed here by title and organized by subject area for your convenience.

See also Tip of the day and the Tip of the day talk page (where the tips are written). For other useful directories, see the navigation bar above.

WikiGnomes are welcome here. Please proofread our tips!

[edit] Tips about Wikipedia as a whole

Don't believe everything you read

Help Wikipedia help you

Copyrights? Copyleft

How reliable is Wikipedia?

What the world knows about us

How popular is Wikipedia?

"Where do I begin?"

[edit] Web browser tips

Change text size easily when reading a page

Supercharge your browser

[edit] Tips on accessing Wikipedia pages

Wikipedia for your cell phone or PDA

[edit] Finding your way around Wikipedia and beyond

"Where do I begin?"

To see everything on Wikipedia about a subject area...

Wikipedia has 20 sections, called namespaces

Namespace entry points

How to see a list of the pages in a namespace

Wikipedia's alphabetical index of articles

Getting a subpage listing

How to get a list of a page's subpages

Wikimedia links and shortcuts

Linking to non-Wikimedia wikis

Can't find what you are looking for?

[edit] Tips on searching

Highlight text on any website, then search Wikipedia for it with a single click

Wikipedia-search with auto-completion

How to search Wikipedia with Lycos

Using Wikipedia's search box:

When a search fails, check your spelling

How to jump to the search box

When "Go" doesn't work, try "Search"

Using the prefix in searches

Searching Wikipedia with Google:

Search Wikipedia faster with Google search tricks

Wikipedia-specific Google searchbox

Wikipedia-specific searching with Google

Search Wikipedia with Google's site-specific search feature

Wikipedia-specific Google searchbox

When and how to exclude Wikipedia from your Google search

Another way to search Wikipedia with Google

Search Wikipedia and Google at the same time

Google Toolbar Current Site Search Button

Firefox search tips:

Wikipedia-specific searching within Firefox

Wikipedia Search Box for Firefox

[edit] Tips on bookmarking, creating access points, etc.

How to change your default Main Page

Wikipedia toolbar for Firefox

[edit] Getting help

Are you looking for help?

Go to the right desk

Ask intelligent questions

Ask intelligent questions

Keep track of your questions

Do you need administrator assistance?

Where to post requests

[edit] Tips for contributors on getting started

Create a user account

Why create an account?

How to sign your name on talk pages

Advanced Signatures I

Advanced Signatures II

Please read department instructions

Displaying Tip of the day on your user page

Create your sister accounts now

The five pillars

Are you lost?

Speed up your learning curve...

[edit] Tips on working with articles

Be neutral, like Wikipedia

Be neutral when editing Wikipedia

Look before you leap

How to create a new page

Page history

SuggestBot is a fun way to pick pages to edit

A fun way to pick pages to edit

The three revert rule

List the things to do for an article

The lead section

Lead section edit trick

Placing a page's Table of Contents

Section edit button

Avoid trademarks

Avoid using neologisms

Cite your sources

Where did that fact come from?!

Don't use forums or emails as sources

Forums and emails are not acceptable sources

Citation Requests

Acronyms and initialisms

S.W.A.T., T.I.M, & the U.S.D.A

Preventing markup glitches

Working with table formatting

Pretty tables

Using Math

Placing "External links" sections

How to create reusable boilerplate

Footnotes

Please fill-in edit summaries

Remember: fill-in the edit summary

Abbreviating edit summaries

Edit summary memory trick

Spellcheck before you hit "Save"

Spell Checkers

Use "Show preview" to check your work before you hit "Save"

Moving pages

Fix double redirects

Collaborations

[edit] Tips on creating and editing links

Linking to another article

How to create a link to another article

Time-saving links: the "pipe trick"

Time-saving links II

Linking to a section

Linking articles: the internal link

Link tricks

When not to use links

External links

Interwiki links and shortcuts

Create links faster with link tricks

Placing interlanguage links

How to provide a link to a specific Google Search

Short link pipe trick

How to link to word definitions

How to link to a category

Sister projects & interwiki linking

Time-saving links

How to make links look the way you want

Google search link

My link disappeared!

How to link to a section of an article

How to link to a category without categorizing the page

How to use red links

Placing "External links" sections

Wikimedia links and shortcuts

Linking to non-Wikimedia wikis

[edit] Category tips

How to add an article to a category

How to create a category

How to create a subcategory

Category tips

Placing category tags

Sorting entries in the categories

[edit] Tips on working with specific types of pages

Redirects

Redirect synonymous topic names

Band articles

Working on the Main Page

Featured content

Beware of instruction creep

When to use subpages

[edit] List tips

Topic list

The topic list

Why have lists when there are categories?

List building

Alphabetical list of articles

[edit] Disambiguation page tips

Formatting disambiguation pages

[edit] Tips on working with images

Placing images

How to find legal photographs and graphics

Tag your image uploads

Cite the source on all image uploads

Uploading Free Images

Inserting a picture in an article

[edit] Boilerplate/template tips

Templates

What are templates used for?

Transclusion

Placing templates

How to transclude a page into the page you are editing

Transclusion caveat

Inclusion vs. Transclusion

[edit] User page tips

Your very own Wikipedia bookmark page

Need ideas for your user page design?

How to display the tip of the day on your user page

User Sub Pages

Userboxes

[edit] Other ways to contribute

Be a Help Desk volunteer

Welcoming Committee

Join the fight against vandalism

Become an Administrator

Help test the MediaWiki software

[edit] Communicating with other editors

Talking to Wikipedians

What to do about unsigned comments

What did he say?

Wikijargon

Be forgiving to new users

Gain feedback on your editing from other editors

Posting on the Wikipedia Community Bulletin Board

How to catch admin attention fast

Love thy neighbor

In conflicts, reach consensus

Explaining Wiki markup to other users

Wikimedia-wide issues

Strikeout button

Centralizing project discussion

Screenshots

Wikimedia has mailing lists

[edit] Watchdogging (monitoring) Wikipedia

Preview tomorrow's featured article

Use your watchlist

How to watch for pages that don't exist yet

How to enable the Enhance recent changes setting

Join the Recent Changes Patrol!

Join Wikipedia's Counter Vandalism Unit

To count your edits, use Essjay's Edit Counter

Editcountitis

[edit] Configuring and customizing your account

Reserve your username on the sister projects, before it gets taken

How to change your username

Keeping track of time

How to adjust the height of your edit window

Making the edit summary input field larger

How to enable right-click section editing

Double click editing

How to disable the section edit links

How to enable the Enhance recent changes setting

Customize appearance of dates

User scripts

User scripts

Install your first javascript

[edit] Tips on working faster

Your customizable Wikipedia navigation hub

Think outside the box

Think outside the box

Wikipedia search box focus

The edit toolbar

How to enable right-click section editing

Double click editing

Shortcuts

Navigate fast using shortcuts

Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts

Use Wikipedia shortcuts to navigate faster

Work faster with keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts

Fast Wikipedia editing with AutoWikiBrowser

Power-editing with AutoWikiBrowser

Navigation popups

Power tool: Navigation Popups

[edit] MetaTips

Wikipedia's dozen most essential tips

Wikipedia's dozen most powerful tips

Wikipedia's top ten essential tips

Wikipedia's top ten power tips

Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other

[edit] These need sorting into the above categories

Be sure to check for duplication - don't include them if they are already there!

When is a Wikipedia project a WikiProject?

The Wikipedia Curriculum

Spoken Wikipedia

Mediation Cabal

Wiki-exploration: beyond Wikipedia...

Fansites, Forums, & other Webpage Articles

Viewing Persondata

Making the editbox more visually pleasing

Permission Requests

The Lead Section

Try and see it my way!

Pick from a list of template parameter choices

World of fiction

Same titles, different meanings

Brilliant pictures

Undoing edits

No copies of primary sources

Dynamic date conversion

Find stubs and expand them

How to look at the changes to an article

How to customize your signature

When to use external links

How to add a picture to an article

How to skip scrolling and clicking

Wikipedia etiquette = Wikiquette

Section editing

What writing style to use

Where to write about current events

Link articles to their foreign-language counterparts

Automating tasks on Wikipedia

Wikipedia needs pictures. How you can help...

Accuracy, quality and peer review

What can be included in Wikipedia?

Freedom of speech and profanity

Your user page

Upgrade Recent Changes in my preferences

Watching for changes

If you have privileged access to web pages...

Troubleshooting Wikipedia's look and feel with skins

Go Search

Not everything that's true is verifiable